Lessons
by littlemagicme
Summary: Aurora teaches Mulan how to interact with people better, Mulan teaches Aurora how to survive the wild. They might just learn more from each other than some new skills.
1. Horseshoes and Camp

**For any of you who are not familiar with the system of measurements used, a foot is about 30 cm, and an inch is about 2.5 cm.**

** I have more planned for this story, but updates are going to be slow because all of the chapters are going to be about this length. Plus I have other stuff going on. Thanks for taking the time to read. Enjoy and Review!**

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Aurora and Mulan were sitting at camp together, waiting for the rabbit to roast. Mulan removed her armor for the evening. Aurora had abandoned her lilac dress a long time ago for brown pants and a dark purple shirt. They were settling down from another long, uneventful day. The two women had been traveling for two weeks now, alone. Throughout those two weeks, they had not come into contact with another soul. They were on a mission to retrieve the lost soul of Prince Phillip, but neither of them had any ideas about where to start. So, they were just roaming around the forest purposefully. Boredom had been taking over Aurora for the past few days until she couldn't take it anymore. She looked at Mulan, who was watching the cooking rabbit intently, before asking, "What kind of games did you play, growing up?"

Mulan looked up, bewildered. "How does that pertain to anything we are doing or trying to accomplish?"

Feeling a door was just slammed in her face, Aurora answered, "I'm bored and hoped to fix that by starting an interesting conversation with you, my only companion. Plus, I'm a curious person and want to know more about you."

"Well, you shouldn't go prying into other people's lives." Mulan had dismissed her attempt at conversation curtly.

Exasperated, Aurora muttered, "They must not have taught you guys how to socialize in boot camp." A few seconds later, her face adorning a huge grin, she perked up with an idea. "That's what we can do! After we eat, I'm going to teach you how to relax and have fun."

Mulan's head shot up at this. "No, those types of activities can be distracting and therefore dangerous."

"Mulan, we haven't come across anything dangerous in over two weeks. Please, can we just try it? Lately, it has been so boring! I can't take it anymore."

Mulan considered these points carefully before responding. "I suppose we could try it for tonight. Under one condition: tomorrow, I'm going to teach you how to do something useful."

Aurora agreed without hesitation. She then jumped up and spun around from sheer excitement. Not only would she have entertainment for tonight, she was guaranteed something to do the next night. She only settled down when the rabbit was done cooking. As they ate, Aurora realized she wasn't sure what to do with Mulan that night. She didn't want to throw the warrior into cold water, but she still wanted to have fun. She thought she would try going back to her original question.

Aurora ventured, "So you never told me what sort of games you played growing up. I thought maybe we could play a game."

Mulan glanced up from her supper and seemed to understand she could not get around the topic this time. Taking a deep breath, she simply stated, "We did not play games growing up. Our time was always spent working or with our studies."

This statement shocked Aurora. Although it did show why Mulan was so uptight, she had never been allowed to have fun. She decided right there that Mulan was going to learn to play a game.

"Well what if I showed you how to play a game or two that I use to play in court?"

Mulan went back to her food saying matter-of-factly, "You are the teacher. What we do is up to you."

Aurora thought about this. Yes, they were going to play a game tonight. She looked around as they finished eating; trying to think of what she could use to improvise what she needed to play. Finally they were both done. Aurora wasted no time in putting her plans into action.

"Alright, so when I was little, my favorite games were Horseshoes, Hopscotch, and Checkers. I think I know how we can improvise what we will need for all of them, but we aren't going to have time to try them all. Horseshoes and Hopscotch are more physical, but Checkers is purely mental. Do you have a preference?"

Mulan looked at Aurora and repeated what she had said earlier. "You are the teacher. The choice is yours."

Aurora scrunched her eyebrows a little in annoyance. The usually decisive warrior had absolutely no opinions, but she was too happy to be playing a game for it to bother her that much. She made a quick decision. "Okay, I think we should play Horseshoes. It won't be that hard to set up, and it is the easiest to explain. First, can you cut that branch down?" Aurora pointed to a small, thin and relatively straight branch on a young tree as she headed over to the pile of supplies. She dug around for the mallet and five pieces of rope, each about two feet long.

"Cut that so it is about three feet long without any leaves and sharpen one end, please." Aurora continued her instructions over her shoulder. When she came back with what she was looking for Mulan was already done. Aurora held out the pieces of rope, "Can you tie these into rings? I'll take the stick." Mulan sat on a log to tie the rings while Aurora used the stick to draw two circles in the dirt, a large one and a small one about five feet from each other. She then grabbed the mallet and drove the sharp end of the stick half way into the ground at the center of the larger circle.

"Wow, you got that really far down." Aurora turned to see Mulan with five identical rings in her hand. Aurora smiled and started walking to the smaller circle. "Come on, and be careful of the lines." She tossed the mallet to the side and looked at the set-up. It had turned out perfectly. This was going to be fun.

Upon reaching the smaller circle, Aurora began explaining the rules. "So, you have to stand in this circle and throw the rings one at a time at the stick. You aren't allowed to step out of it while you are throwing. If the ring lands on the stick, you get three points. Hitting the stick is two points, if the ring lands anywhere in the circle you get one point, and missing the circle entirely earns you nothing. The person at the end of the round with the most points wins the round and the first person to win three rounds wins the game. Any question?"

"Everything seems straight forward. Just one question: how long is a round?"

"We each throw all five rings once. Would you like to go first or should I?"

Mulan held the rings out to Aurora. "You go first, so I can see how it is done."

Aurora took the rings, stepped into the circle, and made her first throw. The circle they were aiming at was about six feet wide. Aurora's first shot was a foot to the left and short. She looked at the ring dumbfounded. Mulan just looked at Aurora expectantly. Aurora's eyes trailed to the remaining rings at her side. She picked up the next one, adjusted her hold on it and tried again. This time she had much more success. The ring landed about three inches in front of the stick. Having a feel of things, she managed to hit the stick with the next two and the last one landed perfectly on it. Aurora's face broke into a huge grin.

They collected the rings and Mulan began her turn. The first ring sailed to the right, landing just next to the stick. The next three hit it, landing on top of each other. The last one was high and landed a foot behind. Mulan hug her head, knowing Aurora had won the round.

They finished their game. Mulan won the next round, followed by Aurora winning again. The fourth round was a tie. It was then Aurora noticed Mulan's small smile. She instantly decided they would have to do things like this more often, if only so she could see it more. Aurora then won again (barely), winning the game. By that time they had finished, the last rays of the sun were disappearing over the hills.

Mulan looked slightly disappointed she had lost; her competitive side showing. She still had that smile Aurora had noticed earlier, saying as she untied the ropes, "I enjoyed that, thank you for showing me how to play."

"It was fun. I didn't realize how much I had missed games. We will have to do that again sometime." Aurora bubbled as she pulled up the stick, tossed it into the fire, and met Mulan at the supplies pile to put the mallet away.

Mulan nodded, "Perhaps," the warrior straightened up before continuing, "But I already know what we are going to do tomorrow."

Aurora looked up, curiosity getting the better of her again. "And what will that be?"

"You will have to wait and see." Mulan said slyly. She then turned and headed to the shelter to finish getting ready for bed, leaving Aurora by the fire trying to imagine what she had in mind.

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Aurora had spent all day trying to get Mulan to tell her what they were going to do that night, to no avail. Finally, as the sun began its decent down the western sky, they found a nice clearing to settle down for the night. Mulan turned to her. "Are you ready to start this evening's lesson?"

Aurora looked around. They had just gotten there and nothing was set up. "Aren't you going to build everything first?" The question was understandable because Mulan always gathered the materials for the shelter and fire pit then built both. Aurora usually just contributed by dragging over a log for them to sit on, collecting wood for Mulan to arrange and ignite, or looking around for edible berries (the only survival skill she had picked up in her childhood). Mulan also did the hunting and cooking. Aurora had offered to help with the other stuff before but was always turned down.

Mulan met the princess' gaze. "I decided I should teach you how to build camp. You are right; I should let you help me more." Aurora was happy to hear this. She always felt bad Mulan did most of the work, but she didn't know how else to help.

"Okay, are we going to go hunting too?"

"No, I'm not going to show you how to that, and there won't be enough time for me to go. There is some dried meat in my bag that we can have after we set up."

Aurora was disappointed about the lack of fresh food, but wanted to learn how she could help more in the future. So she agreed. "Very well, where do we begin?"

Mulan set her pack on the ground. Straitening, she answered, "First, we need to decide what kind of shelter would be the easiest to build."

Aurora, who could have sworn she had only ever seen one kind asked, "There is more than one type of shelter?"

Mulan just stared at her for what felt like five minutes before speaking. "Yes, there are many types. You have slept in at least five different designs over the last two weeks."

"Oh, I guess ugh, well, you know, they all look the same to me." Aurora finished weakly. After standing there awkwardly for a moment, she tried speaking again. "So do you know how we should go about doing this?"

The warrior was circling the area looking at the trees and ground. "Yes, you see this log on the ground here? It is a good length but not too thick that we can't move it. I can cut a niche in that stump for it to sit in. Then we can put that big blanket over it, and secure it with the ropes and stakes."

Aurora tried to picture what Mulan had described. Nodding, they went to pull the log from the underbrush. Once they got it out, Mulan went to cut the niche while Aurora broke off a few off-shoots. They then dragged it over to the stump and placed the log so it was leaning against it. Next they pulled out the needed supplies from the pack. Aurora carried the blanket and Mulan had the ropes, stakes, and mallet. The blanket was thrown over the support log and secured to the ground with the spikes. The ropes were used to tie the blanket to the top of the log, just to make sure it would not slip during the night. Finally, they moved their bed rolls in. This shelter turned out a lot smaller than most of their other ones. Usually, there was enough space for the girls to leave about a foot between them. In this one, the bed rolls barely fit side by side.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to be so narrow. We can fix it if this is unacceptable." Mulan's apologized quietly, sounding slightly ashamed.

"Don't be sorry, this is fine. Plus, we will be warmer this way." Aurora said. "The nights have been getting colder." She added seeming to just comprehend what she was saying. Pausing, she looked at Mulan, who graced her with a small smile similar to the ones from the night before. Aurora momentarily forgot what they were doing. Last night she had noticed how beautiful Mulan was when she smiled, but now she realized that Mulan's smile only enhanced her already constant beauty. The truth was that Mulan's smile made her look gorgeous.

Startled by the thoughts going through her head, she broke eye contact. "So, I suppose the fire is next."

"I…, yes, building the fire." Mulan was still looking at Aurora, and sounded like she was being pulled out of a deep thought.

They crawled out of the shelter. The opening was facing the clearing and they wanted to keep the fire close, but far enough away so the structure wouldn't catch. Mulan picked a spot a few feet away. She kicked the fallen leaves revealing the soft dirt. As she stomped it down, she began talking. "You always clear away the leaves first and make sure the ground is firm. Next we need to gather some stones and make a ring so more leaves don't get blown in."

Aurora nodded. "How big should the stones be? And don't you usually stack them so there are two layers?"

Mulan's head shot up. "How do you notice that, but not different shelter structures you are inside?"

Aurora looked at her sheepishly. She knew exactly why she retained that bit of information. It was more fun to watch Mulan build the fire than to watch her build a shelter. Not willing to give up this opinion, she just shrugged and turned to collect rocks. Aurora could feel eyes on her as she walked away, but then heard Mulan turn to search in the opposite direction and the feeling vanished.

When they returned with a small load each, Mulan knelt down. "Okay, I'm going to start arranging these. Can you go find some wood?"

Aurora scurried off and came back with a huge arm load in about ten minutes. "There is a lot of wood around here," she said kneeling next to the warrior, "Is that enough?"

Mulan glanced at the pile, "Yes that should be good for now." She had just finished putting the last couple rocks in place.

"So for the fire, I have to sharpen a stick and drive it into the ground, like the one for the game was last night." Mulan pulled out her knife and sharpened the stick as Aurora got up to grab the mallet. Once the stick was in the ground, Mulan continued. "Now we need to lean other pieces against it, like this." She picked some wood and leaned it against the pole forming a triangle, the base of which was about six inches long. Once they were finished Mulan removed one and laid it to the side. Aurora looked at her confused. "We need tinder in there." She pulled some dry grass from her pocket a placed it inside the structure around the pole. "Make sure the tinder is spread out like this, then take the flint and hit it on the knife so the sparks land in it. Once you see embers, stop and blow on it, gently. As soon as you see small flames feed it small twigs."

When she was finished speaking she held out the flint and knife to Aurora, who took it tentatively. It took her a few tries, but finally made it spark. She made it rain sparks over the tinder until she saw the little glowing worms that were the embers. The flint and knife were tossed to the side. Aurora flopped onto her stomach to blow on the grass. When the flame first appeared, she couldn't believe she had done it. She sat up, gasping, "I did it, I did it. I did it!"

Mulan put her hand on Aurora's shoulder, "Yes, but you have to get the rest of the fire going."

Aurora grabbed a handful of twigs and began tossing them into the center. Mulan helped her maintain the fire in until it grew. When Mulan deemed it large enough, she replaced the last log and sat back on her heels. Aurora looked around. It was dusk.

"Well that took a lot longer than usual." She observed.

Mulan was digging the dried meat out of her bag. "I had to explain everything to you as we went. In the future, you will be able to do it without me right there and it will go a lot faster." Mulan returned to the fire, handing some food to Aurora before sitting next to her.

They ate quietly for some time before Aurora broke the silence. "I like this."

"The dried meat?" Mulan questioned.

"Well it is good, but I meant this thing we have going on. I teach you, you teach me. It's good for both of us." Aurora had finished eating and was now watching the fire as she spoke. "It was nice. Perhaps we can do it again sometime."

Mulan quietly nodded, eyes trained on the princess.

Aurora looked at Mulan. "What if we did this every night? We could take turns teaching the other something."

Mulan thought about this for a moment. "What happens when we run out of stuff to teach?"

Aurora grinned. "We can worry about that when the time comes."

Mulan agreed to the idea. The two sat together watching the fire until it was time to go to bed. They crawled into the shelter together. Lying back to back, they both fell asleep. Later that night, Aurora woke from another one of her terrible nightmares. Mulan, who usually kept her distance in these situations, rolled over and put her arm around the frightened girl. The Aurora snuggled closer and fell back asleep. They stayed that way until the first rays of the morning sun awoke them.


	2. Dancing, Self-defense, and Realizations

**Yeah... this one got a way from me a little... All the same, please rate and review.**

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Aurora trudged through the ferns in the path Mulan had cut. Although she no longer got stuck on everything, she still tended to walk at a slower pace than the marching warrior. She was also deep in thought. Tonight was her night, as they had begun to call it, and she didn't know what they were going to do. It had been a little over a week since the first night when they had played Horseshoes. Since then Aurora had taught Mulan how to play Hopscotch and Checkers. Horseshoes was definitely their favorite. Mulan didn't like Hopscotch because it reminded her of a balance training exercise in the army that she had happened to hate. Aurora, who was very good at Checkers, was not match for Mulan's strategizing abilities and got fed up after a few games. They were equally matched at Horseshoes and got very competitive over it. In fact, the last two times it had been Aurora's night, they had played Horseshoes and they were both getting tired of the game. Unfortunately, it was time for something new.

She needed to think of something good for tonight, but nothing came to mind. She sighed angrily at herself. Mulan never seemed to have this problem. It seemed she didn't plan anything until Aurora asked eagerly what they would be doing while they set up camp together. Once asked, Mulan's head would tilt to the side for a moment before seemingly pulling an idea out of thin air. Over the last week and a half, Aurora learned how to set traps, fish, and dry meats so it could be carried for long periods of time. Yesterday, Mulan showed her how to skin and gut their kills.

Aurora truly enjoyed this arrangement. She had learned so much. Mulan also seemed to be benefitting from it. She was more receptive to Aurora's attempts at idle chatter. Mulan was letting her guard down for the princess, opening up to her. Aurora also enjoyed the new closeness. Ever since the night when the shelter turned out narrow, Mulan and Aurora had been setting their bed rolls right next to each other, even when there was plenty of space. They always started out back-to-back, but when Aurora woke up, there was an arm around her that she was snuggling into and a warm sensation throughout her body. Aurora had to admit she loved it. Mulan was comforting and stable. With Mulan close, Aurora had some of the most peaceful nights she could remember. She also exuded strength. Everything about the warrior was strong. She was clever, focused, loyal, protective, and always in control. Then there was her physical strength. Mulan was all muscle. Aurora liked the feeling of Mulan's muscled arm around her and leaning her head back against a strong shoulder. Even through the blankets there was a toned abdomen against her back…

Blushing, Aurora shook the thoughts from her head. Those were new; she had never thought of anyone like that, and was fairly certain she should not be thinking of Mulan in such a way. She had never even analyzed Philip like this. He had always just been…there.

"Back to tonight, back to tonight." She mumbled to herself, trying to get her mind back on track. She tried to think of things she missed from her childhood. "Horses" she thought sarcastically to herself. Walking was just so boring. Aurora missed the wind blowing through her curls and racing across the castle grounds. She thought of what else gave her that sensation.

Spinning.

Even better, dancing.

She wondered if Mulan had ever learned how to dance, at all. Suddenly, she walked headlong into the back of the warrior. Mulan looked around, startled, her eyes resting on Aurora who was sitting in the dust.

"I think there is a creek just down that way. Come on, now isn't the time to rest," Aurora just glared up at her, "Unless something knocked you off balance." Mulan continued. "In that case, I'd advise you to watch where you are going."

Mulan offered her hand to help Aurora up with a smirk on her face. Aurora took it, slightly stunned. Mulan had just teased her! She knew Mulan had a sense of humor, well, she found things amusing at times. But she had never heard the stoic woman crack a joke, or tease. Aurora couldn't help but to attribute it to her attempts to get Mulan to lighten up.

Taking her hand, Aurora smiled countering with, "Well maybe if you didn't stop in the middle of the path, people wouldn't walk into you."

Mulan pulled Aurora to her feet, effortlessly, and steadied her with a hand on her shoulder blade. The smirk turned into a genuine smile. They lingered like that a few seconds longer than necessary before Mulan gave Aurora a slight pat, and continued walking. Aurora was left there wondering why she had felt her stomach flip at the unexpected contact.

They soon reached a small creek and found a good place to make camp. Mulan put out a net to catch any passing fish, while Aurora set some snare traps in a nearby rabbit run. By the time Aurora came back with some berries she had picked along the way, Mulan was already finishing the shelter. Aurora set the berries on a large rock before gathering stones and wood for a fire. As she was looking for the knife and flint, Mulan came back from the stream with three large fish. Aurora started the fire, and then handed the knife to Mulan who began butchering the fish. Once the fire was blazing, Aurora went to see if Mulan needed any help.

"Yeah, can you start preserving these two so we have breakfast and lunch for tomorrow?" Mulan asked, gesturing at the two fish that were already sliced. "I will cook this one for tonight."

Aurora took the fish carcasses to smoke them. Mulan soon had their dinner sizzling on a heated rock. Wondering how to bring up the topic of what she wanted to do tonight, Aurora decided to do so blatantly was the best option.

"So, do you know how to dance?"

Mulan looked up with a quizzical look plastered on her face. "Is that what you want to do tonight?"

Aurora nodded, as she split the berries between them.

Mulan sat back, "Well yes, but it is nothing like how the people of your land do."

"Did." Aurora corrected quietly.

"Did," Mulan echoed. Glancing at the fish, she continued, "My homeland had two main forms of dance that most people were practiced in. There was the Dragon's March, which was a group of men in a large dragon costumes jump around each other following women dressed as flames that would spin and tumble. The other was a drummer's dance. The idea was that someone played a beat and the dancer executed some foot work. Both got faster until the drummer knocked his sticks together. The dancer immediately stopped and bowed to the drummer. Both dances were used for celebrations."

Aurora was fascinated. She had never heard of such types of dance. She was also surprised Mulan had shared so easily. Not that long ago, a similar question had been asked and was met with animosity. Aurora was again thrilled with how much progress Mulan had made in so short of a time.

Mulan pulled the fish from the rock and gave some to Aurora. "Well, what about you?"

"I grew up with a lot partner and line dances. There was a tradition that the partners had to be a boy and a girl. It was thought that dancing was the best way of find your mate because of the way the two people had to work together to perform gracefully, so it would be pointless to dance with someone of your own sex. I always hated that practice. To me, dancing was just fun, so I didn't see why I couldn't dance with my friends. I think people should choose who they want to spend their lives based on more than their ability to dance. I never danced with Philip, and we still loved each other." Aurora stopped abruptly, realizing she had gone off on a tangent and she had spoken of Philip in the past tense.

"Well what was your favorite?" Mulan prompted easing around the slip mention of Philip.

Aurora thought about it for a moment. "There was one where all you did was spin with and around your partner. It was very short, but fast and I liked it."

"How was it done?"

"Well," Aurora looked down at her almost finished dinner, thinking about how to explain it. When no words came to mind, she looked back up, "I will just have to show you after we finish."

"Are you sure? It goes against your customs. I wouldn't want you to be dishonored."

"I disliked that tradition, remember?"

"You can just choose what traditions to follow like that?"

"I don't see why not."

Mulan looked like she was going to argue, but then changed her mind. Instead, she nodded and they finished in silence.

They cleared a space in the middle of the camp. "Are you ready?" Aurora asked.

"Yes"

"Well, first have to get into position." Aurora stepped towards Mulan and offered her hands, which Mulan took. A tingle shot up Aurora's arms, taking the princess by surprise.

"Then, umm, I think, ugh…" the surprise had completely destroyed her though process, leaving Aurora stuttering.

Mulan noticed and concernedly asked if she was alright.

"I, yes, it has just been a long time since I have done this. It seems to be taking me a moment to remember the steps."

Her eyebrows knitted together in concentration until the dance came back to her. "Okay, so, first, you step back with your right foot letting go with your left hand. I will step around you spinning under you arm as I go. Then, I spin you. Once you are facing me again, I curl in and back out and your left hand goes back in my right." She stopped there.

"Is that it?"

"No, it is just the first part of three, but we should try that bit before moving on."

They moved together, slowly at first. Mulan soon picked up on it and by their third time, they had it mastered.

Aurora stopped again to explain the next segment. "Now, let go with your right hand and spin me while you spin. It should look like I am orbiting you. Once you make a full circle, we will spin each other back and forth three times each. The person orbiting will be the first to spin, and in the opposite direction that they were originally going. It is supposed to be really fast."

Again they practiced the segment. Once they had it, they put it with the first part and made sure the transitions were good.

"Ok, the last part is the easiest. After you make your final spin, I will curl into you again. This time, catch my free hand. Then I twist out, without letting go and we finish by spinning together."

Finally they could do the whole thing. The two danced until Aurora sat down winded and dizzy. Mulan sat next to her, smiling.

"That was pleasant. I can see why you like it so much." Mulan said, almost sheepishly.

Aurora grinned. She liked dancing with Mulan. It was better than dancing with anyone she had ever danced with before. With Mulan, Aurora felt sensations she had never experienced before. Just as she was about to ask if they could go again, she remembered what Mulan had said about the dancing from her kingdom. Aurora wanted to see it.

"Do you think you could show me your drum dance?"

"I can, one moment." Mulan smiled, got up and went to the edge of the clearing. Aurora stayed seated watching Mulan. When she came back, she had two sticks about as long as her forearm. Sitting back next to Aurora, she explained.

"I'm going to show you the beat first because it is easier to do the steps to the beat. Here is what it sounds like." Mulan took a stick in each hand and began beating on the ground and a log.

Bumt…tum tum bumt tum…Bumt…tum tum bumt tum…Bumt…tum tum bumt tum…

Bumt tum tum bumt tum Bumt tum tum bumt tum Bumt tum tum bumt tum

Bumt tum bumt tum Bumt tum bumt tum Bumt tum bumt tum kisch

She finished by slamming the sticks together. Looking at Aurora, she asked, "Think you got that."

Aurora nodded and the sticks were handed to her. Mulan went to the middle of the clearing and stood with one foot in front of the other. She looked at Aurora who began tapping out the beat. Mulan began shifting her weight back forth. As the drumming got faster, so did her rocking. She began turning on the spot in time with the rocking. Aurora was mesmerized by the scene before her. Mulan made the seemingly jerky and erratic movements looks smooth and controlled. When Aurora got to the part where she was merely alternating between hitting the ground and the log, Mulan was jumping from foot to foot in semi circles. Finally, Aurora crashed the sticks together. Mulan immediately stopped, turned, and bowed to her drummer.

"That was amazing." Aurora whispered, thinking about how Mulan's charcoal colored hair had whipped around as she spun to the beat. She had only been able to notice now because she was in a better position to observe.

"Thank you," the warrior answered. "Would you like to try?"

Aurora hesitated before getting up, prepared to make a fool out of herself. Mulan started drumming. The rhythm took control of Aurora and she did the dance like she had been doing it all her life. There was a sense of freedom, of being one with the world, and in particularly, her drummer, Mulan. She was only fully aware of what was going on around her again when she had finished with the bow.

Mulan rose from her place on the ground to come nearer. "That was very well done."

Aurora straitened herself. "Mulan, how did I do that? As soon as you started drumming, I felt… taken over."

"Yes, it does that. It's the way the beat is played. There was a myth about how it was created by an Enchantress. She showed the people how to be the masters of the land. In return, they would perform this dance every harvest in memory of her great favor. While the beat was played, she is our master." Mulan finished with a distant look.

Aurora smiled. "Thank you, for showing me, and dancing in general really. It was fun."

"It was my pleasure." Blushing, Mulan turned towards the shelter. "Come on, we should go get some rest."

Later that night, Aurora lay awake thinking about how much more open Mulan was now. The myth about the dance was interesting. Her people ever only danced for pleasure, no myths attached. She thought about how she felt sheer joy when she spun into the warrior. Her mind tried to convince her that she had just missed dancing, but there was something else pulling at her heart. At that moment, Mulan rolled over in her sleep, draping her arm around Aurora. It startled her because she had always been asleep by the time this happened. Aurora was unprepared for the heat that coursed through her body from the origin of Mulan's touch. Wiggling more into the embrace, Aurora closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Her dreams were filled with the image of a woman spinning with her jet black hair flying around her.

* * *

The next night, their camp was in the mud. They had woken up to a steady rain falling. Nevertheless, they broke camp and continued their journey, following the creek upriver. By mid-afternoon, the rain cleared and the clouds dissipated, but the landscape was saturated. Mud was unavoidable, much to Aurora's displeasure. They continued on their way until they came across a patch that was dryer than the rest of the area. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, they set camp. Mulan managed to build the shelter in the driest part and so it wasn't sitting directly on the ground. Aurora built the fire and prepared the rabbit she had caught in her snares that morning. As the rabbit finished roasting, a mud splattered Mulan sat on the log next to Aurora.

"So how do you feel about getting muddy?" Mulan asked, glancing at Aurora's nearly mud free clothes.

"Well, honestly, this is the muddiest I've ever been." She twisted her leg to show the mud drops going up her calf and the ring around the cuff of her pants. There were also some spots on her knees from when she trying to start the fire. "Growing up, I was never allowed to play in the dirt, let alone the mud. I was always told it was filthy and undignified. Also, this was the first rain since I have woken up." Aurora continued, feeling the need to defend herself. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I thought that I could teach you some self defense later, because it is best to practice in the mud."

Aurora gave the warrior a puzzled look, which was answered simply with, "Softer landing and the creek is right there, so we can just wash up in it after."

"Oh"

Mulan blushed faintly. "We don't have to if you don't want to. I'm completely capable of defending you. I just thought it would be a good extra precaution."

Aurora reached over, placing her hand firmly on Mulan's knee. "No, it's a good idea, and honestly I've wanted to learn for some time. It might just take some persuading with the mud."

"I can do that." Mulan assured.

When they were finished their meal, they walked closer to the creek. There was an area that jutted out into it that was all mud. Mulan took off her shoes and walk out in it, checking for rocks. Finding none, she told Aurora she should take her own shoes off and join her. Aurora took her shoes off, but stayed on the rocky outcrop Mulan had left her on. Sighing, Mulan came back and offered Aurora her hand.

"Come on, it won't hurt you. It is just wet, squishy, and a little cold." Mulan coaxed with a grin.

Aurora took Mulan's hand and put one foot in, as if she were testing the temperature of a bath. The mud was about half an inch deep and squished in between her toes. Aurora pulled a face and looked at Mulan who rolled her eyes and yanked the princess further in.

Aurora glared at Mulan. "That was a horrible thing to do!"

"I know, but at the rate you were going, we would have run out of sunlight before I could teach you anything."

Aurora's glare faltered. Mulan had a point. "Well now that you have me standing in the mud, what's next?"

"Alright, first, I want to see what your natural reaction to a situation would be. Turn around."

Aurora slowly turned around, slightly nervous. Suddenly, there was a hand on her left shoulder. Panicked, Aurora jumped forward.

"Not bad, you had the sense to get away. It won't always work, but it's something I can work with. Now stay there, I want to try a different attack." Mulan sounded pleased.

Before Aurora could say anything, two arms snaked around her torso, the hands clasping together in front of her. Aurora was immediately filled with the sensation of floating. She did what felt natural, which was to lay her head back against Mulan's shoulder.

Mulan, seemingly unprepared for this, let go and stuttered, "I, uh, wh-what the hell are you doing?"

Aurora's head shot up as she just realized herself what she had done. She turned to face Mulan, blushing. "Well… you see, the only times someone has grabbed me in that way was when I knew who it was and they were trying to be affectionate…" she trailed off. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. It's, it's fine, charming actually." Mulan rambled, her own blush forming. They stared at each other for a few seconds until Mulan broke the silences.

"So, if you put your hand on my shoulder like I did the first time, I can show you what to do, especially if it is a firm grip that you can't just jump out of."

With that, she turned around. It took Aurora a few moments to remember what was going on, but she soon shook the thoughts out of her mind and did as she was told. As soon as Aurora's hand made contact with Mulan, the warrior whipped around. She twisted out of the hold, putting her leg behind Aurora's. Aurora fell back, landing solidly in the mud. She looked up at Mulan in complete shock.

"See, that's why it is best to train in the mud." Mulan stated, extending her had to help Aurora up. "Do you think you could replicate that?"

Aurora nodded curtly and turned her back to the smirking warrior. When a hand landed on her, she twisted as Mulan had done, but her leg got tangled. When Mulan fell, Aurora went with her, landing on top of her.

"That wasn't supposed to happen." Aurora mumbled to herself, but was so close that Mulan had no difficulty hearing.

"No, it wasn't, and do you know what the major problem with this situation is?"

"I…" Aurora stopped herself before she said something really stupid. Namely, reveal that she quite liked the current position they were in. "No."

"Well, when you landed on me, you failed to pin me properly. All I need to do is this,"

Mulan wrapped her arms around Aurora for the second time that evening. This time she threw her weight against the princess, switching their positions. Mulan was sitting on Aurora's thighs, holding her legs in place. Aurora's hands were pinned above her head by the wrists. The first thing that went through Aurora's mind was that Mulan was straddling her, followed by how much she liked it.

"And now you are in more danger than you were to begin with." Mulan finished her point.

"I'm also dirtier," Aurora added as she pulled herself from her thoughts and felt the mud seep into her clothes.

"It will come right out." Mulan assured her with a smile.

She released Aurora's hands and sat back without getting up and looked at the sky to see where the sun was on its descent. Despite enjoying the outcome, Aurora didn't like how easily Mulan had bested her. With her competitive streak flaring up, took the opportunity to sit up and hurl a handful of mud at Mulan. It hit its target perfectly, splattering all across Mulan's chest. Mulan looked down in shock, then back up at Aurora, but it was too late. Aurora had already launched herself at the warrior, forcing her on her back. She promptly secured Mulan's hands over her head straddling her torso.

"How's this for a pin?" Aurora asked with a proud smirk on her face.

The warrior got over her shock quickly. The next thing Aurora knew, Mulan had managed to hook her free legs under Aurora's arm pushing her back and giving Mulan leverage and momentum to stand up.

Standing over Aurora, Mulan explained what went wrong. "You were sitting to high. The proper position would be over my upper leg so I couldn't move them. Other than that, it was a very well executed scheme." Mulan glanced at the sky again. "The sun is starting to set. We should go now if we want to wash before going back to camp."

Mulan pulled Aurora out of the mud. The two collected their shoes and walked down to the rockier area of the stream. Once there, Aurora paused, not sure how Mulan had intended for this to work out and too embarrassed to ask. Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention. She turned her head to see Mulan carrying her clothes into the stream in her undergarments. Aurora shyly watched Mulan. This was the first time she had seen so much of her. Normally, they both wore long sleeved tunics and pants. Their undergarments exposed their arms, shoulders, stomachs, and a large portion of their backs as well as the majority of their legs. Mulan must have felt the pair of eyes on her because she stiffened and turned to Aurora. Her head tilted to the side as she took in the sight of the dirty, blushing princess. "Aren't you coming?"

The question pulled Aurora from her gaze and she removed her clothes and joined Mulan. They were washing their clothes side-by-side both secretly glancing at each other. The quiet was broken when Mulan moved Aurora's mud filled hair to her left shoulder and traced the white line going down Aurora's right shoulder blade.

"Where would a princess get a scare like this?" she asked quietly more to herself than to Aurora.

It took Aurora a few moments to answer, not only because she had to remember how she got them, but also because Mulan touching her bare skin like that sent a violent, pleasing chill through her.

"Umm, when I was young, there were once assassins sent into the castle to kill my father. I heard them walking pass my room and went out to investigate. They heard the door open and tried to grab me. I escaped, but the man's dagger sliced my shoulder blade. The guards were alerted by my scream but the assassins fled when they heard the guards coming." She finished. "Nothing compared to the scares you've seemed to acquire." Aurora added with a smile, hoping to lighten the mood.

It was true. Mulan had a thick scare going across her abdomen that spanned from her right to left side. She also had a smaller one running down her left tricep along with a perfect circle directly under the right side of her collar bone.

"That's what happens in battle." Mulan answered seriously.

"How did you get the one that is a perfect circle?" Aurora inquired, having never seen one like it.

"I lost focus on my opponent just long enough for them to stab me with their spear." The warrior answered, slightly ashamed.

"Soldiers with healed scares were always regarded as heroes in my kingdom. It proved that they were strong enough to recover, physically and mentally, from the pains and traumas of a fight." Aurora tried to cheer up Mulan. She met Aurora's eyes and with a slight nod, Aurora knew her words had sunk in.

They finished washing their clothes and laid them on the rocks to begin drying. Then the two women waded further into the stream to wash themselves. By this time, the sun was only half visible over the horizon and it was getting cooler. They submerged themselves and scrubbed away the mud quickly. Once clean, they put on their shoes, but carried their still wet clothes back to camp. Once there, they hung their clothes to finish drying on some low-hanging branches. They built up the fire and lounged near it to dry their hair and under clothes.

"Well that was fun, thank you for teaching me." Aurora tried to break the silence.

"Aurora, we hardly did anything. It digressed into something similar to a wrestling match far too quickly and I miss judged how much time we had. The days are getting shorter. What could you have possibly learned?" Mulan asked a little dejectedly.

"Well…," Aurora's head tilted in thought. "I learned how it pin someone." With a smirk, she added, "And that mud isn't as bad as I was always told."

Mulan scoffed. "It's going to be hard to pin someone if you can't get out of the hold."

Aurora's smirk didn't falter. "I will just have to get lucky then."

Mulan smiled sadly, "Let's hope it never comes to that." Aurora nodded. Mulan stood up and stretched. Aurora watched her walk over to their clothes and run a hand over them. She turned back to Aurora, "They aren't going to be dry until tomorrow. It's getting late, are you ready for bed?"

Aurora rose from the ground and the two climbed into the shelter together. They lay down back-to-back as had become custom, and wrapped themselves in their separated bed rolls. It took minutes before Aurora began to shiver violently. Mulan whipped around, startled by the sudden movements.

"Aurora! Are you okay?"

"Yes, but I'm freezing. It just hit me." She managed to get out through chattering teeth.

Mulan gave her a sympathetic smile. She undid her bed roll and held it open to Aurora. "Would you like to come over here? It will be much warmer."

Aurora's eyes widened at what she thought were blatant innuendos. They were both still in their undergarments for gods' sake! "I ugh… are you sure you're okay with that?"

"Yes, it is only going to get colder as the night progresses. We will both be better off."

Aurora thought it over for a second. Mulan was right. It was only going to get colder, not only tonight, but as the seasons progressed. Honestly, she quite liked the idea of cuddling up with Mulan. With that, she wiggled out of her own bed roll and into Mulan's. Aurora's was pulled over them as an extra buffer against the chill. Mulan was on her side, facing Aurora who was on her back so she could see Mulan. Aurora then noticed how close they really were and did the first thing that came to mind.

"Hi."

"Hello." Mulan's eyebrows creased. "You really are cold and you're still shivering. Come here." Mulan wrapped her arms around Aurora and pulled her closer. The feelings of warmth she always got when Mulan put her arms around her shot through her body faster than ever because of the sheer number of contact points. Aurora turned so her back was to Mulan. She drifted off thinking that she could get use to this really easily and how perfect Mulan's bare stomach felt against her equally bare back.

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When Aurora woke up in the middle of the night, she found she had flipped over in her sleep. It seemed she had wedged her face into the crux of Mulan's neck to keep warm. Her arm had wrapped itself around Mulan as well. Aurora thought she should move a little because this could be seen as inappropriately close, even to keep warm. She was just thinking about how to do it without waking the other woman, when she felt the hand on her back slide up to her neck and finger curl into her hair as a cheek nuzzle into the top of her head. Her eyes fluttered shut in sheer pleasure, all previous ideas of moving abandoned. Her grip around the sleeping form of Mulan tightened possessively. She rationalized that there wasn't anyone around to give a damn about how close she was pressed to Mulan. She loved the way their bodies fit together. She loved the way Mulan spoke to her. She loved the way Mulan treated her. She loved the way Mulan held her. She loved Mulan.

Her eyes shot back open in the night. That was it: she was in love with Mulan. It explained the thoughts about her, the feelings, and what she just realized was a need for closeness. It was how she had been able to refer to Philip in the past tense the other night. She still loved him, but there was not nearly as much emotion as she had for Mulan. His touch was not electrically charged like Mulan's. He had treated her nicely, but like she might break or as a pet who needed to be taken care of. Mulan treated her like a companion, an equal, someone with the potential to help.

Yes, Aurora loved Mulan, but was that love reciprocated? The thought worried Aurora. She had to find out. If Mulan loved her too, she would be the happiest woman alive, but if not… Aurora could already feel the sinking feeling in her gut. Pushing her worries away, she closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. They were something she would have to deal with another day.


	3. Hunting

******For any of you who are not familiar with the system of measurements used**, a yard is about .9 meters, and a pound is about .45 kilograms. 

**Anyone who would like a visual representation of the weapon I attempt to describe, type "atlatl" in Google Images.**

**Warning: this chapter is about hunting and will briefly mention killing and butchering animals.**

**Finally, please rate and review.**

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Aurora's awareness of her feelings for Mulan was slowly driving her insane. She had developed cravings for the warrior's touch. These cravings were making her reckless, indiscreet in her actions towards Mulan. In fact, last night, she had planned the evening around her desire it be close to Mulan. It had been very cold last night, so Aurora suggested that they sit close to the fire and tell stories. She told the famous story of King Arthur and his knights. Mulan shared a fable about a maiden who died after trying to brake a deal with a dragon. More importantly, Aurora had spent the time leaning against Mulan and when they went to bed, she was again invited into Mulan's bed roll.

They had continued following the stream until presently, they were standing at the base of a twenty foot cliff the water was cascading off of. Aurora came up next to Mulan, and it took every ounce of self-control she had to keep herself from slipping her hand into Mulan's. She squinted up the rock face. "Well what do we do now?"

Mulan looked from the cliff to Aurora. "I think we should make camp here and climb it tomorrow. I know it is a little early to set camp, but we don't know what it's like up there and I don't want to leave the stream. What do you think?"

"I, wait, you want my opinion?"

Mulan looked puzzled. "Yes, that's why I asked."

"Oh, well, I-I guess I agree with you. Everything we need is down here." Aurora could feel the blush creeping up her neck. Mulan eyed her skeptically until she gave a curt nod and moved to prepare a shelter. Aurora went to complete her normal self-appointed tasks of building a fire and setting traps.

On her way down to the stream Aurora berated herself for her stupidity. Why would she say something like that? "Everything we need is down here." What a stupid thing to say. Her mouth was functioning without her brain's consent and this was the outcome. Honestly, while Mulan was speaking, she was only half listening. She was thinking about how perfect Mulan looked with the waterfall behind her. Then when Mulan gave her that look, Aurora was terrified that she had guessed at her secret feelings. Aurora knew she had to be more careful, but also knew she was losing control. She also had no idea what Mulan felt for her, which made the idea of discovery that much more daunting.

When Aurora came back, Mulan was sitting on a log she had pulled up to the fire tying sharpened stones onto feathered shafts no longer than four feet. Beside her were two, small branches. Each branch had a small offshoot that had been broken off. Mulan looked up when she heard the approaching princess. "Are you ready to go?"

"Where?" Aurora asked, her head tilting to the side in curiosity.

"Well earlier, I saw some rather fresh looking wild pig tracks. We should try to track them down. If we get one, we won't have to worry about food for about a week. I'm just finishing the spears."

Aurora was excited. Finally, she was going to learn to hunt. The only hunting she had ever done was with dogs or falcons. Then, all she had had to do was follow them on her horse and give the order for the servant to kill the beast. More recently, there were the animals in the traps that had to be taken care of, but that had only occurred a couple times over the last two weeks. They were also already contained. All she had to do was remember where she set the trap.

"Alright, are there any preparations you need help with?"

Mulan looked around the area for a moment. "Could you get a rock and scrape the bark off of that tree? Make the bare spot about the size of your hand."

Aurora did what she was asked. Mulan was finished by the time Aurora had made the mark and came over to the princess carrying the two branches and four of the ten spears.

Aurora looked at the weapons. "How did you make those so fast?"

Mulan stopped in front of her. "Well I already had the spear heads and feathers. I just had to put them all together. Plus, you were down by the river for a while."

Aurora, feeling the need to defend herself, said, "I walked down river a ways to set the traps."

Mulan seemed to ignore her statement, choosing instead to get back to the task at hand. She handed one of the branches to Aurora along with a spear. "Okay, so before we can go try to track the pigs, you need to learn how to use this. This branch is used to add power to you throw. Hold it in your right hand with your last two fingers and thumb. Put the butt of the spear against the nub and steady it by setting it between your index and middle fingers." Mulan paused there to make sure Aurora was doing it correctly, and then continued. "Step back on your right foot, with your hand over you right shoulder. Throw it like you would a normal spear, your wrist will flick forward and the spear will separate from your thrower. It will look something like this."

Mulan put a spear in her own thrower and mimed the throwing motion slowly for Aurora to see. Once she made sure Aurora understood, she reset and hurled to spear at the spot on the tree thirty feet away. The spear embedded itself a few inches in at the center of the target. Mulan seemed pleased with her work and look to Aurora for her to try. At first Aurora had trouble, but with Mulan's help she managed to get her first spear in the tree just above the mark. After a few more shots, she proved she was competent. Of the four spears they used for practice, three had lost their heads in the tree. They collected the usable spears. Aurora carried four while Mulan had three as well as the knife. Together, they set off into the woods.

Aurora followed Mulan back through the bushes to where Mulan had seen the tracks. She stopped and crouched down to inspect the ground, then looked at the base of a nearby tree. "Aurora, look, they must not have pass by her that long ago. The mud on this tree is not completely dry yet."

"Why would they rub mud on the tree?"

Mulan, who had started walking in the direction the tracks were pointed answered, "They like to lie around in the mud to keep cool, and rub against trees to scratch their backs. The mud gets transferred from their backs to the bark."

Aurora, satisfied with this answer, followed quietly. They walked about 100 yards until they came upon a clearing up against a cliff. In this clearing, four female, adult pigs were lounging around while about twenty older looking piglets were exploring their surroundings. Fortunately, the wind was coming off of the cliff, so the presence of the women went unnoticed. Mulan grabbed Aurora's arm and pulled her back a safe distance to talk.

"This might be dangerous. They are cornered, so their instincts are going to tell them to charge at us if we attack."

Aurora considered this piece of information for a moment before asking, "How dangerous?"

"One of us could get mauled. They're fast and vicious. Especially if we go after one of the young ones, which we will have to do because we won't be able to carry one of the adults back to camp, even together."

Aurora again considered carefully before asking, "Do you think it is worth the risk and will we be able to get it up the waterfall?"

"We will defiantly be able to get a small one up the waterfall. As for being worth the risk, I think it might be. Our luck at trapping and fishing has been great, but I don't want to depend on luck." Mulan's face fell a little. "Also, I don't really know the area we are in. The stream we have been following could end soon, or we could get to the edge of the forest. It would be good to have food with us."

Aurora was starting to wonder who Mulan was trying to convince. All of the points she had sounded valid to Aurora. She ventured, "If there is a way we can do this to minimize the risk, I think we should go for it."

Mulan nodded. "We better go get another look at them and pick out which one we want. Then we will attack from a flank so the others don't feel cornered. Agreed?"

Aurora nodded, "Agreed." With that, they crept back towards the clearing where the pigs were still resting. They crouched there, watching the piglets until Mulan pointed out one of the smaller ones. "That one, it has got a limp from a poorly healed broken leg."

"How can you tell?"

"Look closely, it is crooked."

Aurora looked again and saw that the back left leg was indeed crooked. "Okay, so now what side should we choose?"

Mulan looked around before deciding. "The wind shifted a little. It is coming from the right, so we should go to the left. Pigs have a good sense of smell. Once there, we wait for a good shot. If everything goes well, we will kill it on the first shot and the rest of the pigs will flee in the opposite direction."

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"We miss completely and get charged at." Mulan stated matter-of-factly. They made their way around the clearing to the desired position. Once there, Mulan looked at Aurora. "If something goes wrong and they charge us, climb that tree." Aurora nodded and they crouched in the ferns waiting for a good time to strike.

As they waited there, Aurora took the time to wrap her mind around what exactly they were doing. More importantly, what they were doing together. Two weeks ago, Mulan would have never allowed Aurora to go hunting with her, let alone suggest it. She was grateful towards Mulan for putting so much time and energy into her, to teach her how to do these things. Aurora couldn't help but wonder if Philip would have taught her how to survive or would even be okay with her learning these skills. She decided not. Philip would have tried to keep her as his perfect, innocent princess; the girl he fell in love with. He would have never taken into consideration that because of the change in environment, it would be good for her to learn how to cope. He didn't accept change well, but Mulan seemed to. Once Aurora got her to begin, Mulan had been pushing Aurora to adapt. It was just another thing Aurora loved about Mulan.

Aurora's gaze drifted from the pigs to Mulan who had the cutest look of focused determination. She remembered were supposed to be looking for an opportunity to strike and tore her attention back to the clearing. The piglet they had targeted was rummaging around in the dirt right by its mother. Then the mother got up and trotted towards the other piglets. Mulan's whispered "Now" was barely above a breath. She launched a spear at the abandoned pig, shortly followed by Aurora's. Both shots embedded themselves into the pig. It fell over squealing. The mother ran to its fallen offspring as the others fled in the opposite direction. Suddenly, it lifted its head and smelled the air. Grunting, it turned towards Aurora and Mulan.

"Aurora, climb the tree, it is going to charge." Aurora was up about seven feet before she noticed she wasn't being followed. Twisting back, she could see Mulan had pulled the knife out still crouched on the ground. The sow was pacing in front of the tree line as if looking for the warrior.

Aurora panicked. "Mulan move!"

The sow charged strait for the tree Aurora was sitting in. It got to the base of the tree and jumped up on its hind legs, supporting itself against the trunk. As it was snapping at Aurora's ankles, which were far out of the animal's range, Mulan took the opportunity to grab their quarry. Mulan quietly approached the fallen beast and leaned over it to remove the projectiles. In a final attempt to survive, the piglet flailed at Mulan, managing to clamp its jaw down on her wrist before the warrior slit its throat. The sow pivoted from the tree and charged back into the clearing. Mulan must have anticipated this, because she was already swinging herself up into a tree on the opposite side of the clearing. The pig circled the clearing once before she went back to her now dead piglet. She nudged the carcass with her snout before letting out a mournful squeal and trotting in the direction the rest of her group had fled in.

Aurora went to jump down from the tree, but saw Mulan shaking her head. She understood that she should stay put for a few moments to make sure it was safe. From across the clearing, she could see that Mulan was cradling her right hand tenderly. Fearing she was seriously hurt, Aurora jumped down, despite the warning and walked into the clearing. Seeing there was no threat, Mulan also left her tree and met Aurora by the carcass.

"Mulan, your hand! What happened? Is it serious?"

Mulan attempted to smile reassuringly at Aurora, but it ended up being more of a grimace. "I was punished for my carelessness. The little bastard had a really strong bite. I think my wrist is broken."

Aurora looked at Mulan's injury. "We have to get back to camp to treat that. Come on." She turned to leave, but was stopped by Mulan.

"We have to bring this with us," she said, nudging the piglet with her foot, "as well as the weapons." Mulan bent down, removed the spears, and started lifting the carcass with her good hand.

Aurora rushed over to stop her. "There is no way you are carrying that all the way back to camp with one hand! I will do it."

Mulan straitened up with an amused expression. "It weighs at least twenty pounds. I don't want you to hurt yourself." Aurora already had her arm under it and lifting it close to her body. Mulan's eye fell on the dropped knife. "Wait, cut the head off before we go. We won't need it and the body will weigh less without it."

She retrieved the blade and handed it to Aurora who chopped off the head and buried it. Mulan kicked at the ground to try to get a layer of dirt over the blood. They weren't that far from their camp and didn't want any wondering predators to stumble into them. Mulan tucked the knife and spear launchers into her belt and insisted that if Aurora was going to carry the pig, she could carry the five remaining spears in her good hand. Aurora reluctantly agreed and the two set off from the clearing towards the camp.

It was dark by the time they made it back to camp. Aurora dropped the body and went to rebuild the fire. Mulan handed her the knife again and asked her if she felt up to starting to clean the kill while Mulan cleaned and bandaged her wrist. Mulan promised help as soon as she was done.

Aurora turned back to the corpse with the knife. She started by removing the hooves. Then she slit it up the belly and pulled out all of the internal organs. After the body was skinned, she took all of the unwanted parts away from the camp a little and buried them. When she returned, Mulan was preparing a rack to smoke the meat on. Concerned, Aurora asked Mulan if she was okay to be working with her injured hand.

"As long as I am careful, I will be fine. It's wrapped pretty tight, so I can use it to some extent. I can't lift anything heavy with it and, being right handed, I should stay away from knives for a while. I assure you, I am well enough to dry meat."

Aurora, still not convinced asked, "Don't you think you should rest?"

Mulan nodded. "I promise I will as soon as the meat is taken care of."

Aurora grudgingly accepted Mulan was not going to back down on this. She sliced the meat and handed it to Mulan, who put it on the rack. When all of the meat was smoked dry, the resulting jerky was packed away.

Aurora moved towards the shelter, suppressing a yawn, but was stopped when her name was called. Turning to Mulan she asked what was wrong. Mulan blushed a little as she explained, "You're covered in blood."

Aurora looked down and saw she did indeed have blood stains all down her body. She looked back at Mulan. "You are too. What do you suggest we do about it?"

Mulan paused, then started slowly, "Well, it is too dark to wash it out now but it's not good to go bed covered in blood. The sent might attract animals…"

All Aurora wanted to do at this point was go to bed. Without waiting for Mulan to finish, she took off her clothes and went to hang them off of a branch. When she turned around, Mulan was right in front of her putting her own clothes with Aurora's. She was effectively trapped between the tree trunk and Mulan. Aurora instantly felt a strong urge to grab the warrior and kiss her right there, but managed to suppress it. When Mulan moved, Aurora found she was slightly disappointed, but followed her to the shelter. She stood in the entrance way as Mulan lay down. Holding the blanket open, she asked Aurora if she was coming.

Aurora wanted to more than anything, but was worried about Mulan. "I don't want to hurt your hand more than it already is."

Mulan laughed at this. "Don't worry about me. Now come here before you get sick."

Aurora relented and snuggled into Mulan like she had for the past two nights. Despite the long day, sleep would not come to her. She had too many thoughts swirling around in her mind. The flippancy with which she had been regarding Philip recently scared her. Wasn't he her true love? If he was, how could she be in love with Mulan? She was, without a doubt, in love with Mulan. It was the most concrete thing in her mind. This feeling she experienced, even now, when Mulan touched her was unparallel to anything she had ever felt with Philip. It was the feeling she had only ever heard about in the great romance myths. She loved Mulan. How had Philip woken her? It didn't make sense. Aurora thought about these questions for quite some time before she came to a startling realization: she didn't care. Of course, she was grateful to Philip for waking her and he would always be a special person to her, but Mulan was just… more. The question that worried her the most now presented itself. Did Mulan love her too? Aurora analyzed her time with Mulan. She started with the night Philip was with them, and then the time spent with Snow and Emma. Finally, she looked at the last couple weeks with extreme care. It was the time frame that Mulan had really opened up, and when Aurora realized her own feelings. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find a definitive answer. The only way to find out what Mulan was thinking was to ask her. That prospect terrified Aurora, but she had to find out, before these emotions destroyed her. She fell asleep wondering just how she was going to approach Mulan with this topic.


	4. The Fulfillment of a Prophecy

**Please rate and review, thanks for reading!**

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Aurora woke with a cold back and an empty feeling in her gut. She rolled over to discover the source of her problem: Mulan wasn't there. Sitting up, she remembered her clothes were still hanging on a tree and covered in blood. She wrapped herself in some of the bedding before crawling out of the shelter to look for Mulan. It was almost dawn. Aurora saw that Mulan's clothes were still with her own. Worried, she walked to the waterfall that was just out of sight from the camp. When she got there, she saw Mulan kneeling at the water's edge.

"What are you doing up so early?" Aurora whispered.

Mulan turned slightly and gave Aurora a strange look. "Why are you whispering?"

Aurora paused. She had no idea why she had felt the need to whisper. "I guess because it is still so early, I didn't want to wake anything up." Her reply wasn't a whisper, but still came out very low. "So, what are you doing up?"

"My wrist woke me up. It needed to be rewrapped. I didn't mean to wake you." Mulan murmured. She finished what she was doing and stood up. The two went back to the shelter and settled into the nest they had created in their sleep and waited for the sun to rise. They sat together in peaceful silence until Mulan spoke again. "I won't be able to climb the waterfall with my wrist. When the sun rises, we could break camp and leave the stream. At least we will still be moving."

"How long does it usually take a broken wrist to heal?"

"Fully, six weeks minimum," Aurora's eyes widened at this. Six weeks was a long time. Mulan continued, "But I will be able to use it more in a few days."

Aurora thought for a moment about their situation. She didn't want Mulan to hurt herself trying to complete her normal tasks with her wrist. "Okay, why don't we stay here those few days then move on? We are in a good spot. There is food and water and everything is already set. Plus, I still have to wash the blood out of our clothes and,"

"Aurora, I'm capable of washing my own clothes." Mulan cut in.

"I'm sure you are, but I don't want you to take any chances." Aurora twisted her head so she could look at Mulan, whose eyebrows were knitted together.

"You think I will do something stupid?"

Aurora gave Mulan a devilish grin. "I think you are overestimating the capabilities of a broken wrist."

Mulan sighed and wrapped her arm around Aurora, pulling her closer, much to Aurora's delight. "I suppose you are not going to let this go, aren't you?"

Aurora leaned into Mulan as she confirmed that Mulan's assumption was correct. Mulan sighed again. "Fine we can stay here, but only for a few days." With that, they watched the sun finish coming up over the horizon.

They had both dozed off after the sun rose and didn't reemerged from the shelter until around mid morning. After having breakfast, Aurora collected the clothes and they went back to the waterfall. Aurora started washing the blood stains out. Within fifteen minutes of their arrival, Mulan started pacing impatiently behind her. Finally, she collapsed in a huff next to Aurora. Mulan let her fingertips skim the surface of the water. Aurora blushed, thinking about how it would feel if Mulan applied the same motion over her bare skin. Suddenly, Mulan's hand dipped into the water and, with one fluid motion, set it flying towards Aurora. The princess scrunched up her nose. Without a word, she twisted the shirt in her hand and whipped it at Mulan. The makeshift whip was dodged as Mulan flung more water at Aurora and retreated into the stream. Aurora ran after her. The stream was quite wide at the base of the waterfall and Mulan was in the middle of that area. Aurora thought she was just crouching there until the water went from being at her knees to far over her head. When she resurfaced, Mulan was right there with worry painted across her face.

"Are you okay?"

Aurora smiled at Mulan, rubbing the water out of her eyes. "I'm fine. Thanks for warning me about that drop-off though."

Mulan's demeanor turned defensive. "I thought you would notice when I was up to my neck that it got deep quickly."

"I'm joking with you, relax." Aurora waited for Mulan to calm down before continuing. "This is great. I love deep water. You can do more than just splash around." She gave Mulan an accusing look before taking a deep breath and submerging herself. Popping up behind the warrior, she said, "Speaking of splashing, that wasn't very nice."

Mulan spun around. "I was feeling useless and got bored."

Aurora laughed at this. "And you reprimand me for being immature! Well, while we are here, we might as well enjoy it. I've only done one shirt, but the rest aren't going anywhere."

They spent the better part of an hour swimming. When they got tired, they went back to the shore and Aurora resumed washing the clothes. She suggested that Mulan collected pebbles and twigs so they could play checkers later. The clothes were clean and drying in the sun by mid afternoon. They shared some fruit from a nearby tree and spent the better part of the afternoon playing checkers. Mulan won every game until Aurora got fed up and quit.

Leaning against a log Aurora asked Mulan what she wanted to do for the rest of the day.

"It is your turn to choose you know."

Aurora rolled her eyes. "I was the one who suggested checkers."

Mulan glanced at her. "You did, but it is your day. So, what are we doing?" She asked with a little smirk.

Glaring, Aurora told Mulan that she was out of ideas. Mulan laughed. "Well I'm up for anything."

Aurora was quiet for a moment before starting a bit awkwardly, "Well, I do have one idea, but it is kind of…strange."

This caught Mulan's attention and she cocked her head. "Strange how?"

"It could be…in some circles…be seen…as ugh. It's potentially creepy and invasive." Aurora finally vocalized her thought, blushing. It had come out more incriminating than she intended.

Mulan's eyes widened. She asked, slowly, "What would this idea of yours entail?"

Aurora's words came out rushed as she tried to explain herself and her idea all at once. "I noticed how we don't actually know that much about each other and I, being a curious person, thought we could try to find out more about each other."

Mulan looked more confused than worried. "You want to interrogate me?"

"You would be doing the same to me, and it would be more casual than an interrogation. We don't have to if you don't want to. It was kind of a stupid idea." Aurora babbled sheepishly, her blush only deepening as she spoke.

Mulan considered what Aurora said carefully. "Did you have any rules or structure in mind?"

Aurora looked up, surprised that Mulan was even considering this. "Yeah, kind of. I was thinking we could take turns asking questions. The answer can't just be 'yes or no'. You can refuse to answer something, but then you get asked a different question. If I was to ask you a question and you answered it, you could then ask me the same question, but you can't ask a question you refused to answer."

Mulan nodded, "It seems fair," and added with a raised eyebrow, "and it appears you have given this a decent amount of thought. Why don't you begin?"

Aurora blushed again. "I guess we should start simply. What is your favorite color?"

"Red. What is your favorite food?"

"Mutton baked with rosemary." Aurora paused for a moment before asking Mulan the same question. In a short amount of time, they learned a lot from each other. Mulan liked this strange thing called "dragon fruit", which Aurora found slightly ironic. Aurora's favorite flowers were lilacs. Mulan confessed that she hated laundry above all other chores, earning her a playful punch in the arm.

After the laughter died down, Mulan asked her next question. "So, you were disgusted by the idea of being covered in mud, but didn't think twice about the blood from the pig yesterday, why?"

Aurora had to think about her answer for a minute. "I told you how I was always told that playing in mud was beneath me. I don't know why I have no problems with blood. I had never had any encounters with any except my own before the curse." She smiled, "Speaking of curses, how did you meet Philip?"

Mulan seemed taken aback by the question. Aurora was worried that she had crossed a line before Mulan answered. "I had been tracking a beast called the Yaoguai when I met this other girl, Belle. She was also hunting it and we ended up working together. I got injured and she ended up going to face it alone. When she came back, a man was with her. She introduced him as the Yaoguai and he introduced himself as Philip. He told us how he was cursed into that form and his quest to save a princess. Belle left our company and I went with Philip. I haven't seen her since." Mulan finished quietly.

Aurora felt her heart twisting. She didn't like the idea of Mulan spending time with another woman. This feeling had haunted her before, when Aurora found out Philip had been traveling with Mulan. Jealousy, she was jealous of this other woman, this Belle, for spending time with her warrior.

"Aurora, did you hear me?"

Aurora was jostled out of her thoughts, "No, I'm sorry. What did you say?"

"I asked how you met Philip."

"Oh, it was nothing special. We were betrothed shortly after I was born. He was five at the time. Afterwards, he went back to his kingdom and I grew up in mine. When we were old enough to write, we were expected to send each other sickly formal letters. After he came of age, he would come spend the holidays in my kingdom, but we were still kept separated unless we were at an event. That went on until I came of age and was cursed."

Aurora almost laughed at how impersonal her and Philip's story was. It was nothing compared to what Mulan had said. She again was losing herself in thought and almost missed Mulan's next statement. "In my land 'of age' meant twelve. You obviously aren't twelve."

Aurora giggled. "You cheater!"

A smile crept across Mulan's face. "I didn't ask a question. I was telling you how my culture was different followed by an observation."

Aurora continued to giggle as she answered. "'Of age' in my land was eighteen. I was asleep for a year if you take out the twenty-eight years everyone was cursed, so now I'm nineteen." She then raised her eyebrow and looked at Mulan expectantly.

Mulan laughed at Aurora. "Look who is cheating now."

Aurora feigned innocents, but still refused to verbalize the question they both knew she was asking. Finally Mulan gave in, saying she was twenty-one. Satisfied, Aurora thought of a good question, one that had been bothering her for a while.

"Mulan, do you think we can ever save Philip, even if we found a way?"

She watched the jovial expression leave Mulan as the question sank in. "No, Aurora, I'm sorry, we can't. At first I thought we could, but then I remembered that when a wraith takes a soul, the body that is left isn't enchanted. It will decompose like any other. So, even if we could retrieve Philip's soul, there would be no place for it to go. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to hurt you. Before you ask, no, I don't really know where we are, but I had heard of some little towns to the north. That's where we have been heading."

Before she could stop herself, Aurora asked a second question. "Did you love him?"

Mulan sighed, "No, he was a fantastic companion, but I couldn't love him. Aurora, I'm so sorry, do you want to be left alone?"

Aurora shook her head. "It's strange, you would thing I would be inconsolable, but I'm not. I loved him, but I realized it wasn't as deep as I thought." Aurora took a deep breath to summon her courage. "Mulan, I'm in love with you."

She watched the warrior for a reaction, but only saw understanding in her eyes. Then, Mulan said the last thing Aurora expected. "I know."

"You do?" Aurora was bewildered. Yes, she hadn't always been the most discreet about her feelings, but she thought she had done well enough.

Mulan nodded and explained herself. "After Belle left, Philip explained to me what happened. He said that he was turned into the Yaoguai by the same witch that coursed you to prevent him from finding the true love of his princess."

"But I thought Philip was suppose to be my true love." Aurora cut in. Philip had kissed her awake; he broke the curse.

"According to him, when you were born, there was a prophecy that you would be cursed." Aurora nodded; her whole life had seemed to revolve around it. "Well part of it was kept secret from everyone except your parents, Philip, and his parents." Mulan continued, "It said your curse would be broken by 'the warrior of a different land who knew the princess' betrothed in his two forms. This warrior will be the one true love of the princess even when they have never known the other.' Philip told me that it had to be me. I was hunting him when he was the Yaogaui and then we were introduced to each other by Belle."

Aurora was even more confused than ever. "If you were supposed to break the curse, why did Philip kiss me?"

"This prophecy of yours was very detailed. It went on to say how both Philip and I needed to be there and how our love would be so great that all I needed to do was stand there. It turned out to be a good thing because of the way the curse was cast. It seemed the witch not only knew of the prophecy, but knew that 'the warrior' was a woman. She cast it so that you would only wake with the kiss of a man, then she went and cursed Philip."

Aurora understood what was being said, but it didn't match anything she had been told when her parents explained what would happen. "You believed all this when he told you?"

Mulan smiled. "No, but I wanted an adventure, so I agreed to go with him anyway."

Aurora was still extremely skeptical about the story. "Mulan, you better not be messing with my head."

Mulan's eyes widened. "I assure you I would never joke about such a serious matter."

Aurora, still skeptical, said, "Okay, so how do we know that all of this is true?"

Mulan looked up. "Your heart."

"What about it."

"It was ripped out by dark magic, and what is the one thing everyone knows about dark magic?"

Aurora gasped, "It can always be fixed by true love! Mulan, you put my heart back, the prophecy was right! Why didn't you or Philip say anything when I woke up?"

The warrior's face fell a little. "We agreed that we wouldn't tell you and the plans for you to marry Philip would go through. Plus, at that point I still wasn't convinced. When did you know you loved me?"

Aurora thought back for a moment, she remembered feeling a strange attraction to Mulan since their eyes first met, but she hadn't called it love. "The first time I called my feelings love was the night you offered to share a bed roll with me for warmth." Aurora felt the blush creeping across her cheeks. "And you?"

"When I was holding your heart, I knew. That was the reason I even tried to put it back."

Aurora's face brightened up, it finally all made sense to her. There was just one more thing she wanted. "Mulan, I have one more question-"

"Wait, I must ask something first." Mulan cut in. "Can you ever forgive me for my deceit?"

A coy smile spread across her face as Aurora silently got up and straddled Mulan's thighs. Mulan started to stutter, "Aur-Aurora, wh-what are-"

"Shhh," Aurora whispered in Mulan's ear. "Forget my question. As for yours, of course I will, under one condition: kiss me."

Mulan obliged readily. It was tentative at first, but soon emotions took over. Mulan's hand slid down Aurora's back to her butt. Aurora's breathing hitched at the contact. Mulan quickly removed her hand and pulled out of the kiss. She began apologizing for her "indecency and lack of control".

Aurora stopped her, "Why the hell are you apologizing? Do it again."

Mulan's hand returned to Aurora's backside. Aurora responded by recapturing the warrior's lips with her own. As her own hands began to wonder across Mulan's body, Aurora thought about just how much fun these next few days were going to be.


	5. Matthew (Epilogue)

**This is the last little bit of the story. Thank you everyone who has read, favorited, followed, and reviewed! As always, reviews are ****appreciated.**

* * *

Aurora woke up to the sun filtering in through the curtains, clothes strewn around the room, and an arm draped over her. She snuggled closer to Mulan and watched the other woman's hand lay in front of her, focusing on the simple gold band around her third finger. Aurora laid her left hand over Mulan's so that the ring on her own finger was also in view.

"Are you finally awake, my love?"

Aurora rolled over towards the voice with a smile creeping across her face. She leaned in and kissed Mulan deeply. After a while, they broke apart and Aurora asked Mulan if she was hungry. They got dressed for the day. Mulan went to milk the cow and Aurora collected the eggs from the chicken coop. Once back inside, Aurora built the fire in the stove to make breakfast.

The two women had been living on the edge of a small village for almost five years. They came across it by chance and decided to settle down there. Together, they raised sheep and chickens, along with having a cow and a horse. It was a two days journey to the next populated area, which happened to be the large city on the coast. They both enjoyed the small village life and were accepted into the community without any trouble.

Just as they were finishing their breakfast, they heard the clanging of an iron bell. Aurora and Mulan glanced at each other before they both grabbed buckets and ran out of the door. They sprinted down the road into village and were greeted by the sight of a large group of people already trying to put out a blazing fire. Warren, who ran the local tannery, came staggering out of the burning house carrying a small bundle. Aurora ran to help him. He pushed the small bundle into Aurora's arms, telling her to make sure he was safe and take him away from the chaos. She looked at the bundle in her arms and saw it was an infant. Aurora looked over her shoulder as she went into the empty tavern and made eye contact with Mulan, who was helping to bring water from the nearby river.

Aurora sat at a table with the child. He was a charming little thing with dark eyes and light hair. Aurora rocked him until he fell asleep in her arms. Finally, Mulan came in. "Come on, they are deciding what to do with the baby."

Aurora looked up at Mulan. "What do you mean?"

She could tell from the pained expression on Mulan's face that something was wrong. "Aurora, his parents didn't make it out. The kid was lucky Warren found him."

Aurora was heartbroken for boy, orphaned at such a young age. Quietly, she got up and followed Mulan to what was now the ruin of a home. Most of the people who had helped stop the raging fire were gone. The only people that were left were Aurora, Mulan, Warren, and the village midwife, Madame Bess.

Aurora looked around. "Where did everyone go?"

Warren replied, "I tried to ask them to stay and help decided what to do with the baby, but no one wanted anything to do with it."

Mulan looked from the baby still in Aurora's arms to Warren. "What will happen to him if no one takes him in?"

Warren sadly answered. "I will have to take him to the orphan home in the city."

Aurora was horrified. "No one will take him? If he goes to the city orphan home, he will surly die!"

Warren nodded, "I know, but his parents were not well liked. People only came to put out the fire because they didn't want the whole village burning down. I would take him, but since the passing of my wife, I can barely feed my own children."

Aurora's eyes lit up. She started slowly, "Mulan, what- what if we were to take him in?"

Mulan looked skeptical. "We know nothing of how to raise a child."

"No one else will take him! We can't just send him to the city. You know all of the terrible things that happen to the orphans there."

Mulan sighed. "Okay," turning to Madame Bess she asked, "Do you know what his name is?"

Madame Bess nodded. "Matthew. So are you two really going to take him in?"

Mulan and Aurora looked at each other and said "yes" at the same time.

She eyed them for a moment before telling them that if they ever needed advice, to find her. Then she turned and went back to her daily business. Warren also told them that if they ever had any questions, he would be happy to help if he could. Then, he returned to his own family. Aurora and Mulan took Matthew back to their little cottage and prepared to start a new chapter of their life together.


End file.
